SKOWHEGAN – After a lengthy delay while his defense attorney healed from a serious car accident, Richard Reynolds will go on trial in July charged with murder in his estranged wife’s death more than a year ago.

Reynolds, 41, is accused of shooting Rhonda Wakefield-Reynolds, 37, on Bunker Avenue in Fairfield on Jan. 12, 2007. She died the next morning at a Bangor hospital.

The victim reportedly was shot in the head and left to die as Reynolds fled the home with the couple’s two sons, ages 4 and 6. According to court documents, the children witnessed the shooting.

On that same day, Wakefield-Reynolds was to file for divorce. She had been married to Reynolds for seven years and court documents indicate he learned where she was living at a custody hearing held the day before she was shot.

Wakefield-Reynolds was staying with her brother, Kempton Wakefield Jr., and had a protection from abuse order in effect against her estranged husband.

Court documents say that Reynolds had planned to kill Wakefield-Reynolds. He had obtained a .40-caliber handgun the night before the shooting and placed it in his vehicle. After leaving work the next morning, Reynolds wrote a note to his children, telling them he was “doing this to protect them.”

Reynold’s attorney has filed a motion to suppress statements Reynolds made while being interviewed by local and state police after he turned himself in. The motion documentation maintains that Reynold’s statements were not voluntary and made without comprehending his right to remain silent. That hearing is expected to be held in May.

Reynold’s attorney, Peter Barnett of Skowhegan, was injured in a car accident in October 2007.

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